# Letter to Congressman/Senator



## macjoe53 (Jul 8, 2007)

*I am sending the following letter to my Congressman/woman & Senators. Feel free to copy it and send it to yours.*

Dear Congressman/Senator,

This letter is written in response to your support for the SCHIP legislation and the burdensome tax increase that you have voted to place on tobacco products including cigars.

I am opposed to the legislation and the tax increase on several points.

First is that the bill is little more than a thinly veiled attempt to institute socialized medical care in the United States. This is something that voters have told politicians for year that we don't want. Those in support of this bill are primarily those who would benefit from it because they are on too many government entitlement programs now. They are, of course, in favor of any program that gives them even more that they don't work for and is paid for by these legal U.S. citizens that work hard and pay taxes.

Second is that the bill will provide coverage for individuals up to 25 years of age. These individuals are not children. At 18 years, they become adult enough to vote, join the armed forces, get married, buy a house, etc. At 21 years old they become fully adult in that they can purchase alcohol and tobacco and to enter gambling establishments. That means they are not children.

Third, despite what supporters of the bill say, it does open the door for families making up to $80,000 annually to take part of the program. That amount is more than three times over what is considered the poverty rate. How can you say $80,000 is near poverty on one hand but consider it upper middle income for tax purposes?

Fourth, tying the funding of this bill to increases in tobacco tax is setting the bill up for a budget shortfall in the future and guaranteeing that more tax increases and other sources of funding will have to be found. Even Senator Durbin has admitted that his support of the tax increase for SCHIP funding is based on the fact that people will stop smoking because of the higher taxes. Let's see. Tobacco tax based funding for a 35 billion dollar program. Tobacco taxes fall because people will stop smoking. Less taxes equals budget shortfall. Where are you planning to go for more money? Are you and your colleagues so short sighted that you don't understand this or do you have some secret plan to raise our taxes even higher to cover the shortfall?

Fifth, the people most adversely affected by the tobacco tax increase will not be the "high-income" cigar smokers. For one thing, the majority of cigar smokers are not high-income individuals despite what Cigar Aficionado would like you to believe. Most of us are "middle-income" workers who enjoy an occasional cigar. 
The tax is going to hit low-income families and individuals who smoke the hardest because more of their limited income will be used to pay for cigarettes. They will no more give up their cigarettes than they have given up alcohol. They will just divert more of their "entitlement" dollars into cash to purchase cigarettes. If you think this won't happen, just open your eyes to what happens in some neighborhoods where an individual will use food stamps to buy milk and bread and sell it for cash in the parking lot. They then go in and buy beer and cigarettes.

Sixth, if SCHIP is inevitable then fund it in a more sensible manner by cutting wasteful government programs and foreign aid. Where in our constitution does it say we have to send money to foreign countries? Take some of that money and put it to work in our own country.

Those are some of the reasons I am oppose to SCHIP and how it has been funded. I realize you support this bill, so let me explain what I personally are going to do if you should vote to override the presidential veto of this bill.

1. I will never vote for you or your party.
2. I will never support any proposed bill or initiative that you support.
3. I will encourage all my friends, relatives and acquaintances to vote against you.
4. I will support and campaign for a candidate that is running against you in any upcoming election.

At this time, I would like to thank your staffer for taking the time to read this letter as I know that you will not read it and that you don't care what the people you are supposed to represent care.

Sincerely,


----------



## metal (Oct 22, 2007)

macjoe53 said:


> *I am sending the following letter to my Congressman/woman & Senators. Feel free to copy it and send it to yours.*
> 
> Dear Congressman/Senator,
> 
> ...


Actually I will use this thanx


----------

